Sammo Hung Kam-bo is attacking a piece of cake. His preceding interview with a television station has just finished half an hour later than scheduled, so perhaps he's hungry.
'No, I just like eating,' the 56-year-old action star says with his mouth full. He takes another large bite, unfazed by his bulging waistline.
Hung doesn't seem worried about his weight but he's beginning to acknowledge his age. 'Just don't expect me to jump down from a building now,' he says.
Even so, clips from his most recent films suggest he is as nimble in martial arts sequences as his slimmer contemporaries such as Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao.
Hung's kung fu prowess continues to impress in his latest film, Fatal Move. His mainland co-star Wu Jing, 34, says he was awed by the fact that Hung could move faster than him, and their savage cinematic showdown is said by set publicists to be one of the highlights of the 'ultra violent' Category III film charting the mixed fortunes of a triad society.
Directed by Dennis Law Sau-yiu, Hung plays a triad boss in Fatal Move. He had a similar gangster role in S.P.L.: Sha Po Lang (2005), but there's more to this latest part than blood and guts, Hung says. 'I don't want to do it in a conventional way. To begin with, I neither look nor feel like a triad boss. I am not trying to paint a realistic picture of how triads work but bring to life the relationships between brothers, husbands and wives. It's all about how you feel inside, so I interpret the role viscerally. Acting has always been instinctive to me.'